SPINNING THE KILL: ALBRIGHT'S TRIBUNAL HASTENS TO SAVE A LIE...
by Max Sinclair and Jared Israel (posted 11-12-99)
[http://www.emperors-clothes.com authorizes the distribution of this article
but please duplicate it in full, including this note. Thanks. By the way, if
you would like to write to the "War Crimes" Tribunal, their email address is
fisk.icty at un.org ]
Defense Secretary William S. Cohen:
'"We've now seen about 100,000 military-aged men missing... They may have
been murdered,'" Mr. Cohen said yesterday on CBS' Face the Nation."(Quoted,
without the slightest expression of doubt, by Joyce Howard Price in The
Washington Times, May 17, 1999)
Juan Palafox, Spanish forensic expert: "They told us that we were going to
the worst zone of Kosovo. That we should prepare ourselves to perform more
than 2000 autopsies. That we would have to work until the end of November.
The result is very different. We only found 187 cadavers and now we are going
to return [home]." (Spanish experts: Serbs Not Guilty! by Pablo Ordaz in El
Pais, 9/23/99, translated by Emperors-clothes and posted at
http://www.emperors-clothes.com/news/sp-news.htm )
"War Crimes" Tribunal head Carla Del Ponte: "U.N. investigators have exhumed
2,108 corpses in Kosovo so far, but the true number of ethnic Albanian
victims may be much higher, the chief U.N. [War Crimes Tribunal] prosecutor
Carla del Ponte said on Wednesday. " (Reuters, 11-10-99)
It's an old story. A crime is committed in high places. Using the influence
of power, a campaign of disinformation is launched to cover-up the crime.
And then the story starts to crack. A hodge-podge of fixes is tried, but each
new fix only serves to raise new doubts, widening the crack.
So with Wednesday's declaration by Chief Justice Carla del Ponte of the
so-called International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), the "War
Crimes" Tribunal. (We say "so-called" with reason. To understand why, and why
we call it "Albright's Tribunal," See Note # 1 at the end)
IT'S HARD TO FIND DECENT HELP
The whole problem started with some independent-minded Spanish Forensic
experts. They were sent by the "War Crimes" Tribunal to Kosovo to support
NATO charges of Serbian crimes of genocide. Instead, they blew the whistle on
NATO:
"The forensic people, as well as the police, applied their experience in
Rwanda in order to determine what occurred in Kosovo at least in that section
assigned to the Spanish detachment and they were not able to find evidence of
genocide." El Pais, 9-23-99, translated by Emperors-clothes
http://www.emperors-clothes.com/news/sp-news.htm
The Spanish forensic scientists' report was noticed by an
Emperors-clothes.com researcher. We translated it and posted it on
Emperors-clothes along with a sharp critique of the whole mass graves story.
(See Spanish Experts Shoot NATO In Foot or go to
http://www.emperors-clothes.com/articles/jared/sp-comment.htm )
Our translation and commentary were picked up and posted twice on the
influential website, www.anti-war.com. We then emailed the El Pais article
and our commentary all over the Internet. They were seen by Stratfor.com and
a slew of newspapers including: Calgary Herald, Knight Ridder/Tribune, NY
Daily News, The Straits Times (Singapore), the London Times, The (London)
Spectator, The Toronto Sun, the LA Times, the National Post On-Line, and
others. Everyone started asking: "Where are the bodies?"
STONEWALL!
A US President once told his staff: when faced with exposure, deny everything
and cover your tracks. Enter Carla Del Ponte of the "War Crimes" Tribunal who
stated, on Nov. 10th, that it was not true that the "War Crimes"
investigators had only found a few hundred cadavers in Kosovo despite five
months of searching. No, said del Ponte, we found: 2,108. And we will
continue finding more next spring. (This though the forensic experts were
clearly sent to examine the "best mass graves" first...)
IS THIS EMPRESS WEARING ANY CLOTHES?
One could argue that del Ponte's findings are inherently suspect, that for
her "War Crimes" Tribunal to investigate Serbian actions in Kosovo is
manifestly absurd. After all, justice is supposed to be disinterested. But it
is no secret that the Tribunal is a creation of the US government: Madeline
Albright proposed it; its funding comes directly and indirectly from the US.
The US government is hardly a disinterested party in Kosovo. It was the main
force behind a bombing campaign which violated a slew of international
agreements (including the UN and NATO charters). The campaign provided
textbook examples of war crimes: for instance, launching an aggressive war is
internationally accepted as the biggest war crime. Bombing civilian targets
is a close second.
The US government publicly defended these actions by claiming they were
necessary to stop a Serbian campaign of genocide. Now, when there is so much
evidence of terrible damage to Yugoslavia, Clinton et al desperately need to
produce counter-evidence of Serbian genocide or risk a backlash in the
European countries - and perhaps in the US itself.
So having the (US) "War Crimes" Tribunal hunt for evidence of Serbian guilt -
well, the only reason that this is politically possible is that NATO citizens
have been barraged with anti-Serbian propaganda till it's hard for us to
think straight. Absent that propaganda and this investigation would be seen
as a sick joke.
AN OPENLY BIASED "COURT"
The actual functioning of the Tribunal violates every accepted rule governing
legal proceedings. For instance, courts are not supposed to try defendants in
the mass media. They are supposed to proceed with a presumption of innocence.
Investigations are supposed to be conducted impartially - to discover guilt,
not to provide evidence for a vendetta. But Tribunal leaders routinely
declare the Serbs guilty first then proceed to hunt for the evidence later.
During Tribunal "investigations" every opportunity is taken to stage
prejudicial photo-ops and issue sensationalist statements so that the public
gets the impression that Serbian guilt is self-evident.
DEL PONTE'S LITTLE KLA HELPERS
Then there is the matter of the KLA.
Though admittedly a terrorist group, and once universally described as
gangster-ridden, the KLA has been recruited by NATO and the UN to staff the
new police force in Kosovo.
Any murder investigation, and particularly any investigation of mass murder
carried out in a country foreign to the investigators - any such
investigation needs much local help. People who know the terrain, who can
find and produce "witnesses," provide interpreters, locate graves and move
bodies (think about the possibilities of that one!). The KLA constitutes not
only the functioning "civil authority" in Kosovo, but now the officially
approved police force as well. So naturally, it is the KLA that has provided
the Tribunal with its local infrastructure.
Consider if you will this report from Jane's Defense Review which is highly
respected and quite knowledgeable. According to Jane's, the KLA's strategy
has required:
"The harassment and assassination of Serb officials and civilians from
Kosovo's Serb minority. This has included sniper attacks, Serbs dragged from
their vehicles and beaten, together with pressure on them to leave their
homes. The killing of a Serb policeman, Milan Jovic in Podujevo, a mainly
Albanian town 40km north of Pristina, by men with automatic weapons on 21
December was one such incident. This UCK tactic has the double benefit of
forcing Serbs to quit the province and provoking Serb police into retaliation
and subsequent censure by OSCE observers." (Jane's, 2/1/99)
As Jane's suggests in its understated way, the KLA has had as its strategy a
program of terrorizing low-level state employees and civilians. One could
ask, doesn't it taint a criminal investigation to rely for local support on a
group which has had as its strategy committing the very war crimes which the
investigators have promised to uncover?
THE NUMBERS: DO THEY ADD UP?
There have been so many different numbers. What is the basis of these latest
figures? Why should anyone believe them?
Researchers at Stratfor.com and various newspapers have scanned the mass
grave "news" reports over the past five months - and they all come up with a
few hundred bodies, not 2108. Now in a normal, or shall we say, in a
reasonably-conducted police procedure, this would prove nothing, because in a
reasonably-conducted police procedure the police don't broadcast every
alleged finding to the press. But the "War Crimes" Tribunal has conducted its
investigation in an unusual manner:
"The supposed mass grave is discovered. The newspaper or TV reporter, or the
authority figure giving the press conference, takes as a starting point the
assumption that Serbs are genocidal murderers and proceeds from there. The
grave has not been opened, or perhaps it has been opened but the only
evidence is a few scraps of clothing. Nevertheless we are told the dead
bodies will be Albanians; they will be civilians; they will have been killed
by Serbs; the Serbs will have been soldiers or policemen. The reporter does
not probe, does not investigate, does not test these speculations against
fact and nobody complains because the speculations are not presented as
speculations. Once uttered, they have the authority of Revealed Truth. They
are now part of the record, to be cited in later articles as established
facts." (Jared Israel, see "Spanish Forensic Experts Shoot NATO in Foot," or
go to
http://www.emperors-clothes.com/articles/jared/sp-comment.htm
Since every grave, indeed every rumor of a grave, is broadcast far and wide,
it is perfectly reasonable for Strafor.com or Gen. MacKenzie, former head of
UN military forces in Bosnia, to scan the news reports and add up the
numbers. (See Note # 6 at the end)
And the numbers simply don't add up. Although del Ponte's report was
manifestly intended to answer the questions raised by the Spanish forensic
experts, Emperors-clothes.com, antiwar.com, Strafor.com, and increasingly by
newspapers around the world - she does not explain the discrepancy between
the previously trumpeted figures and her new "official" tally. It makes one
wonder: did the Tribunal people pick the figure of 2108 because a) it's not a
round number, hence more believable b) it's a good compromise between the
Tribunal's previously-claimed, much higher numbers and the number of bodies,
in the hundreds, suggested by these newspapers and websites?
WHAT ABOUT SERBS, "GYPSIES" AND ANTI-KLA ALBANIANS?
It's very easy to miss something that's, well, missing. What's missing from
del Ponte's report is any mention that the investigators found the bodies of
Serbs, "Gypsies" and other minorities, or any anti-KLA Albanians in any of
the graves. One could say that this fact alone invalidates the report.
Weren't any of them killed?
Weren't they buried? This ommission suggests that the report is the crudest
kind of ad-hoc cover-up, concocted hastily to silence critics, in fact
concocted so hastily that the producers, hampered by arrogance and by the
sloppy habits which are easy to acquire when one has lots of guns and money -
that rendered feeble by arrogance, the damn fools forgot to throw in a few
Serbs and "Gypsies" to make their cover-up believable.
IT ALL ADDS UP
All this could lead one to conclude that del Ponte's report of 2,108 bodies
of Albanian victims of Serb terror - that this report is entirely without
credibility: it is incredible. However, for the moment, let us set aside that
obvious conclusion. Let us take del Ponte's report at face value. Del Ponte
says her "investigators" found 2108 bodies in graves in Kosovo.
Two thousand bodies?
Is this the "new holocaust"? Is this the worst genocide since Hitler?
Is this why NATO had to kill and wound thousands of human beings? Is this why
they had to bomb hospitals, schools, bridges, factories, electrical plants,
chemical plants? Is this why they had to drop cluster bombs on open markets,
on market day? To bomb trains and then, when the ambulances came to take away
the "collateral damage", fly in and bomb the ambulances? To drive hundreds of
thousands of Serbs, "Gypsies" Gorani (Slavic Muslims) Turks, Croatians and
other non-Albanians from their homes in Kosovo? To double the level of
poverty in Yugoslavia? To forbid the importation of heating fuel for the
Yugoslav winter? To cause God-knows-how-much psychological damage to millions
of children? To pollute southern Europe with deadly chemicals from bombed
factories and refineries?
Is this why?
An army of experts was sent to Kosovo. They had all the latest gadgets. They
spent five months combing Kosovo in a macabre hunt for bodies to prove NATO's
war was justified. NATO leaders promised over and over to find vast numbers
of mass grave victims. They promised. And now we have the report, from the
head Tribunalist herself, from the Chief Prosecutor of the International
Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, Ms. Carla del Ponte.
2,108 bodies.
What happened to the other 98,000?
A DELICATE MATTER OF IDENTITY
Assuming her investigators actually did find 2,108 bodies, Carla del Ponte's
avoids dealing with two nagging questions: who are these dead people? And who
killed them?
DID NATO KILL THEM?
Spanish forensic scientists reported that about half the 187 bodies they
autopsied were victims of NATO raids on the prison at Istok (in Kosovo.) Were
other investigators also shown victims of NATO bombs?
Most of the rest of the people the Spaniards examined were men buried in
individual graves facing Mecca, an act of respect in the Muslim religion
embraced by most ethnic Albanians. Does it sound like these men were victims
of hate crimes? (See Note #2 at end)
75 Albanians in a refugee column were burned to cinders by NATO bombs back in
April. As you may recall, NATO initially denied the incident, then claimed to
have a tape that showed the pilot had targeted Yugoslav military vehicles
among the refugees, and finally admitted the tape didn't exist. Another 75
were bombed while bedded down for the night in the town of Korisa, in May.
NATO justified that bombing by arguing that it was the Serbs fault - they
should have known the refugees would be bombed if they stayed in Korisa
because Korisa was typical of the kind of places NATO bombed. (We realize
this sounds crazy, but that's exactly what a NATO spokesperson said - it's
all quoted in the May 17th Boston Globe.)
We remind you of these incidents because they illustrate two things: a) that
NATO bombs killed Albanians and b) that NATO was willing to go to extremes to
deny responsibility for these killings. Given such powerful denial, isn't it
fair to suggest that there are most likely many more Albanians whom NATO
killed, and about whom we are unaware? How many of these people have been dug
up by del Ponte's experts to provide evidence of Serbian guilt? How many
Albanians killed by NATO bombs while walking or driving or working in their
fields, or just sitting at home?
And how many Serbs were killed this way? How many Roma ("Gypsies")? Slavic
Muslims? Ethnic Turks? How many of these people figure among del Ponte's
2,108?
Since the NATO military occupation of Kosovo, Western media have reported
nearly one hundred cases of people - mainly children - killed by unexploded
cluster bombs. What about people who were killed by these horrible weapons
when they were dropped, during the actual war?
LA Times reporter Paul Watson was in Pristina, in Kosovo, during the bombing.
He reported seeing no evidence of Serbian atrocities. (And he'd been in
Rwanda, so he knew what to look for...) But Watson did see Albanians killed
by NATO bombs. (See Note # 3 at end)
How many of the alleged 2,108 are Yugoslav soldiers, killed during NATO air
raids? How many are KLA members, mistakenly bombed by NATO? We know of two
such incidents. In the first, NATO A-10 aircraft strafed a KLA-captured
hamlet in Kosovo, near Albania. In a second case NATO planes mistakenly
bombed a KLA base in Albania itself. We know about these incidents only
because of the unlikely presence of KLA camera crews. How many times did NATO
mistakenly bomb KLA positions inside Kosovo without camera crews present? And
how many of these people are now being unearthed as victims of Serbian
atrocities?
Does this far-fetched? Well, remember the testimony of the Spanish forensic
experts. They were shown about 100 bodies of prisoners who died when NATO
bombed the prison at Istok. They were supposed to view these people as
victims of Serbian atrocities...
WHAT ABOUT THE LOYALIST ALBANIANS "PUNISHED" BY THE KLA?
FBI investigators say they found 200 bodies. About 150 were buried in graves
in Kacanik and Kotlina. Well, Kacanik and Kotlina were centers of Albanian
resistance to the KLA, NATO's ally. In mid-March, the 162nd KLA brigade under
Commander Bardhi slaughtered loyalist Albanians in Kacanik and Kotlina. Are
these victims of NATO among the FBI's 200?
Similarly, in early April, twelve Albanian villagers were murdered in the Pec
area by one of KLA Commander Ramush Hajredinaj's men. How many other Albanian
loyalists, killed in secret by the terrorist KLA, have been morphed into KLA
martyrs?
WHAT ABOUT SERBS AND ROMA ("gYPSIES") KILLED BY THE KLA?
Since the NATO military occupation of Kosovo began, tens of thousands of Roma
('Gypsies') have been terrorized by the KLA. The same thing happened during
the bombing. No one knows how many were killed. And how many of the 2108 are
Serb civilians killed by the KLA? Do you recall the spate of KLA terrorist
bombings in December of '98 and January of '99? Serbian civilians were blown
up as they sipped a drink in Pristina cafes. As the quote (posted earlier)
from Jane's Review states, the KLA has assassinated many ordinary Serbian
civilians because that was their strategy over the past 20 months. Are they
among the 2108?
By Serbian Orthodox custom, these victims of KLA violence were buried. Are
they being counted too?
WHAT ABOUT KLA MEMBERS AND YUGOSLAV SOLDIERS WHO DIED IN "LEGITIMATE"
FIGHTING?
Many KLA members and Yugoslav soldiers were killed during the so-called
"civil war" that raged for a year before the bombing and continued throughout
the NATO attack? (See Note # 4 at end)
In the winter of 1998-99, the Western media often reported that 2,000 people
on both sides had died in this "civil war", which began in Feb., 1998. At the
time, we argued that the 2000 figure was inflated. Are some or all of these
people being counted by del Ponte?
Put bluntly, del Ponte has provided no evidence of mass murder by Serbian
forces during the NATO bombing. She has provided: nothing. Her report is
simply an attempt to influence public opinion because the NATO war crimes
justification is - finally! - falling apart.
Which leave us with: an UNJUST war
According to human rights organizations, NATO bombs killed nearly 2,000
civilians in Serbia apart from Kosovo. How many more were killed by NATO
bombs in Kosovo? 1000 is a conservative figure, so add that to the 2000
outside Kosovo and we get about 3000 murdered by NATO.
So who is the war criminal?
Moreover, since NATO took over Kosovo, most of the non-Albanian population
has been driven out. Their property has been stolen. (This is routinely
reported without expression of outrage in the mass media. It seems that any
abuse is understandable given Albanian outrage at all those tens of thousands
of imaginary Albanian victims!) Priceless Serbian churches have been
desecrated and blown up all over Kosovo, suggesting an orchestrated effort to
remove the evidence of Kosovo's cultural roots. Many of the remaining
non-Albanians are imprisoned under unbelievable conditions in Orahovac and
other Kosovo towns, apparently with the intention of breaking their spirits
so that they can be produced in show trials staged by the "War Crimes"
Tribunal. (This is not hyperbole. Not only has evidence that Orahovac is a
war-crimes-show-trial factory been reported in Emperors-clothes interviews
with six different people from Orahovac, but it is also implied in Western
media reports. Some of the interviews are now posted at emperors-clothes.com.
More, and quotes from the Western media reports, will be posted this weekend.)
On November 10, the AP reported that about 400 people, mostly Serbs and (we
assume) loyalist Albanians, have been murdered since NATO/KLA took over
Kosovo; clearly these crimes are the work of the KLA and its followers. (See
note # 5 at end - other reports suggest much higher figures.)
Was the transformation of Kosovo into a fascist nightmare what Clinton had in
mind when he said NATO was fighting to recreate a multiethnic, peaceful
society in Kosovo?
A Spanish judge just issued arrest warrants to 2 Argentine ex-Presidents and
95 officers for crimes against humanity committed years ago. Perhaps Clinton,
Blair, George Robertson and Madeline Albright should stay out of Spain.
If you would like to write to the "War Crimes" Tribunal their email address
is fisk.icty at un.org
Note # 1 - For a thorough and devastating look at the War Crimes Tribu/nal,
of which Ms. del Ponte is Chief Prosecutor, see Raymond Kent's
Contextualizing Hate: The Hague Tribunal, the Clinton Administration and the
Serbs or go to http://www.emperors-clothes.com/misc/kent.htm
Note # 2 - For Jared Israel's comments on the Spanish forensic experts'
report, see Spanish Experts Shoot NATO In Foot or go to
http://www.emperors-clothes.com/articles/jared/sp-comment.htm
Note # 3 - To read Paul Watson's wartime report from Pristina, see
Eye-Witness Report from Kosovo during the Bombing or go to
http://www.emperors-clothes.com/articles/watson/radioInt.html
Note # 4 - We refer to the "so-called 'civil war'" between the KLA and
Yugoslav Army. While foreign influences may exist in civil wars - for
example, England had strong commercial ties to and supported the U.S. south
during the U.S. civil war - Kosovo is in a different league. There is much
evidence that the US and Germany instigated and encouraged race-hate for
Serbs among Kosovo's ethnic Albanians; this campaign made use of the fascist
movement among Albanians in WWII. (The earlier fascist movement was itself
fostered by Germany.)
Emperors-clothes is working on a history of fascism in Kosovo. In the
meantime, you can find some discussion of this in A Not-So-Nonviolent Debate
on the Nonviolence 'Board' or go to
http://www.emperors-clothes.com/articles/jared/nonviole.html.
There is much evidence that Germany was behind the creation of the Kosovo
Liberation Army. For more on that birth see How Germany backed the KLA or go
to http://www.emperors-clothes.com/news/europ.htm
For a much more complete, and highly documented, analysis see The KLA: Grim
Origins or go to http://www.emperors-clothes.com/articles/chuss/kla.html
Note # 5 - Serbian sources have presented overwhelming evidence that the
number of Serbs killed since the NATO/KLA takeover of Kosovo is much higher
than the AP reports. Please see NATO downplays Kosovo terror or go to
http://www.emperors-clothes.com/news/downplays.htm
Note # 6 - Gen. MacKenzie's report can be read at Former UN military chief
asks: Where have all the bodies gone? or go to
http://www.emperors-clothes.com/news/mack.htm
If you would like to browse articles from Emperors-Clothes.com, click here Or
go to: http://www.emperors-clothes.com